The Great Rain Escape - Part 3 (of 3)

Thursday, the day we left we TRIED our very best to be out of the door as early as possible. All with matching shirts that the kids and I made the week before the escape. We actually made decent time but poor cousin E struggles with car sickness and threw up in the car half way up to Disneyland. We had to stop to clean up what we could and then had to hang out by the car while Bre cleaned up the rest before heading over to the park. Then there was the fiasco that was, Boy Howdy desperate for the bathroom and no working escalator forcing all strollers to wait in a line to use the elevator. So Bre took the kids to use the bathroom while Cheeks and I waited in the elevator line. I assumed Bre and kids went ahead to the park after the bathroom so Cheeks and I did too. Once we made it threw security and still didn't see them I called Bre only to find out they were still waiting at the elevator for us. Ah. I kept thinking, we don't have our tickets yet, we can just turn around and go do something else right??? By the time we made it into the park it was close to 11, not the 9 we were hoping for. Curses. We had to be to the airport by 5 for a 6:40 flight and things were not looking good for a fun day.

My children were desperate to go play and ride the rides they'd been promised for the last month and cousin E was desperate to meet Cinderella. Oh how she ate up her time amongst royalty. Our first ride only a short line and the kids did mostly well, but Boy Howdy was just not prepared for further delay to his day.

After the ride I thought they would do better in toon town where there are no rides just places to play, but even that was just not helping this poor boy's sad mood. We saw Donald Duck (Cheeks was absolutely mesmerized by him but didn't want to actually get her picture taken with him) and Mickey Mouse but still no love from Boy Howdy. What's funny is that since then, Boy Howdy will tell anyone that he met Mickey Mouse with pure excitement in his voice, but at the time he wanted nothing to do with him (see above picture).

After the Peter Pan ride, which he only did because I promised him juice afterward we made our way to the Pineapple Dole Whip. With that our day completely turned around for my children. It was seriously like I had a different child. He was happy and excited and eager to enjoy more rides. See our It's a Small World ride? Isn't that a happy boy? But the pinnacle of joy was the Buzz Lightyear ride. He got to see Buzz Lightyear and shoot green aliens. and fight Zurg. He was sooooo excited. Thankfully there was very little line so when he wanted to do it again, immediately, it was easy to say YES! We had to leave shortly thereafter and I was so happy to hear Boy Howdy tell his cousin E when she wanted to do the ride for the 3rd time, "Sorry E, we have to go now."

We couldn't leave though before we had a picture taken in front of Disney castle. Our sweet photographer was worried about my children not looking at the camera but I figured it was more representative of the moment at the end of the day than if we were all looking cute. What was cute though was right after the first picture was taken, the kids climbed on bench next to the castle and started playing in the dirt. 

On the tram back to our car. Cheeks is looking like a bedraggled street urchin pulling on her neck and Boy Howdy is wanting desperately to open the door to the tram. I think Bre captured the moment beautifully!

After that, we had one more trip to Chick fil-A for dinner before heading to the airport for our flight. Bre generously watched the kids (including a very wild Cheeks) while I got us and the kids' super heavy car seats booked into our flight. The kids kissed and hugged and hugged and kissed (Cheeks was ready and willing, Boy Howdy not as much) their cousins and we said goodbye for a few months until we see each other at family reunion. Thank you darling Bre for your kind hospitality and your sweet children! I loved it all!!!